Josh Brown likes the new rule to move back PATs

It has become little more than a mindless and mundane swing of his right leg, a "layup" is what Giants veteran kicker Josh Brown calls it.

So automatic is the extra point that Brown has missed just two in 143 career attempts, the last coming on Nov. 28, 2010 in Denver when he played with the St. Louis Rams.

The conditions were fine, he said. The snap and hold were perfect. "I just hooked it left and it hit the post," Brown said matter-of-factly.

On the other, the long-snapper was shoved back into him and Brown kicked the ball directly into his back during a 2005 game when he was with the Seattle Seahawks.

Simply put, the extra point is perhaps the most pedestrian play in all of football — Bill Belichick described it as a "non-competitive play" — and the NFL is taking steps to put some excitement into it because NFL kickers make more than 99 percent of PAT attempts.

Starting in Saturday’s Hall of Fame game between the Giants and Bills, the extra-point attempt will be moved back from the 2-yard line to the 15-yard line as an experiment for the first two weeks of the preseason.

Thus, instead of the kick being the equivalent of a chip-shot 19-yard field, it will be a 33-yard attempt. Two-point conversion attempts will remain at the 2-yard line.

Over the final three weeks of the preseason and throughout the regular season, the extra point will be returned to the 2-yard line.

This offseason, NFL owners voted down a proposal to move extra points back to the 25-yard line. Commissioner Roger Goodell suggested getting rid of the extra point altogether. It was decided to experiment with moving them to the 15-yard line and revisit the idea next offseason.

"The PAT is almost a given, it’s like a layup," said Brown, a 12-year pro who converted 31 of 31 extra-point attempts last season. "You should make it every time. Moving it back actually adds a little bit of suspense and points become very, very important.

"It adds something to the game rather than them taking away from the game. You still have the two-point conversion and that comes into play now. There’s going to be a different coaching approach."

Thirty-three yard field goals aren’t exactly that challenging, either. Last season, kickers made 90 percent (265 of 295) of their field-goal attempts between the 30- and 39-yard lines. Brown has converted 88 percent (72 of 82) from that distance for his career.

"I think it’s a good start because the wind is going to play a bigger factor," Brown said. "Will it affect it tremendously? Probably not. But it’s still going to open the window for a possible miss. It’s going to force a kicker to never take a play off. You have to be intense from 30 yards."

Brown, who has converted 81.9 percent (254 of 310) of his career field-goal attempts, believes moving the extra point back to the 25 and making it a 43-yard kick would’ve been a mistake.

"I think that’s pushing it," he said. "A lot of kickers have trouble in that range. I think the point-after try should be something that’s doable."